Temporarily Dead
by ghost13579
Summary: There are many magical skills that have been forbidden in Equestria for over a millennium to protect the ponies, such as battle magic, curses and necromancy. But not all ponies back then wanted to obey this ban; so they were trapped in stone to rot. However, not all of them are defeated by mortality. After all, what is death to a necromancer than a rest before their resurrect?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.

Canterlot was well known as the calm capital of Equestria, and this was mainly the case when it wasn't under attack by powerful forces. Even tonight, the only noticeable figures this night was the pair of bat pony guards that were walking through the Canterlot gardens, while become more involved in their discussion.

"I told you that I don't want to speak about it." Said one of the bat ponies, who was wearing an iron set of armour with the night guard crest on his chest. The other simply shook her head and looked at her partner as she said "Come on, Helm. You've been acting less active as of late, and you won't even tell anyone about anything. You'll have to talk about eventually, for your own good if not for anything else." The iron-cladded bat pony shook his head as the pair of them walked into the statue gardens, before saying "I know that you're trying to help me, shield, and I appreciate that. But just because you're my supervisor for this season doesn't give you the right to start meddling with my personal life. So just drop it already."

Shield stopped them in the middle of the path and looked at him hurtfully as she said "Helm, do you only think of my as your supervisor?" He sighed and looked down in guilt for a moment, as the uncomfortable silence surrounded the pair. After a few moments in the garden of frozen glares, he looked back up at Shield and said "I'm sorry sis, but I've just been trying to forget the whole thing. But now I think about it, you deserve to know if nothing else." Helm paused for a moment, expecting his sister and superior to ask a question.

He sighed softly as Shield patiently waited, so he decided to continue. "Last Month during my last few days of private time, I was meant to meet up with my marefriend at this café for lunch. When she didn't turn up, I just thought that she was busy at work as usual. However, her sister found me a few minutes later and she was crying, so I asked her what was wrong. After she stopped sobbing, she managed to tell me that there was an accident at their family business and that... my marefriend was…" The look on her brother's face and the silence that followed was all Shield needed to understand what had happened.

Shield then lifted a wing and wrapped it around her younger brother's form as she said "Helm, I'm… sorry for making you bring it up. If I had known…" Helm raised a forehoof to silence her and said "But you couldn't have. I didn't even know until it was too late. I didn't even get to say goodbye." He then looked up into the sky with tear-full eyes, as a star shot across the princess's night sky. "I just wish that there was a way in which I could see her again, no matter what. Even if it's only once, so that I can say goodbye." The Younger bat pony then sighed as he looked down and said "But I know that'll never happen. There's nothing that can bring her…"

_CRACK!_

The two night guards jumped to face the noise, the past conversation forgotten about as they mentally prepared themselves for a fight. Shield led the way off the path and through the garden of stone statues, with Helm walking behind her to avoid being attacked from the back. As they walked between the statues, a feeling of emptiness seemed to surround them until it became the underlying emotion the pair felt as they stopped at the base of a cloaked statue that stared ahead from the shadows of the hedges. Helm looked around the area for a moment, before saying "Well there seems to be nothing here, so we best be on our way."

Shield shook her head, before saying "You know that we have to check the area if anything suspicious happens, so that we know if we have to report it to the captain." Helm sighed, before saying "Shield, it's the middle of the night in the royal princess's castle, in the middle of the most heavily protected city in Equestria, prison and showcase to some of the most dangerous creatures that ponies have defeated. What could possibly…"

_CRACK!_

The bat ponies froze in position as the loud sound of stone breaking ripped into the silence of the night, and the two slowly turned to the direction of the noise. It was now obvious to the pair of night guards that the statue of the cloaked figure had several large cracks on its cloak and hood. Distracted by the statue slowly breaking apart and the growing feeling of empty aura surrounding the area, neither of the two noticed that the shooting star disappeared from the sky.

"**Shooting stars of the night, or 'Nightmare dreams' as they have been called in the past, have been wildly considered as Nightmare Moon's attempt to trick innocent ponies into a life of unfortunate events. Theses Shooting stars are considered as Nightmare Dreams as ponies are able to have a single wish when they see a shooting star, but the wish also have unforeseen effects on the world around the ponies. One such example is of a mare that wished for true love, and went on to fall in love with a disguised changeling who-"**

Princess Luna's was interrupted from her reading of pony myths when a bat pony wearing a suit of iron armour flew into the main castle chamber, before bowing as she said "Your highness, there has been a discovery in the castle grounds. I believe that an immediate response is needed to protect Canterlot, your majesty." Luna sighed lightly as she closed the book and placed it on the throne's arm rest, before asking "May we ask what discovery this is which needs an immediate action from a princess instead of the captain of the royal guards, soldier?"

The bat pony seemed to step out of her bow as she looked at the princess with practiced professionalism and said "I and another guard discovered that there seems to by a mysterious aura around a cloaked statue in the royal gardens, your highness. The statue itself also seems to be showing mysterious behaviour, as it seems to be gradually breaking apart. My partner is currently guarding the statue in case anything happens." Princess Luna's appeared to have a look of distressed, before putting on a neutral face and saying "Thank you, guard. Please wait with the other guard until a team of guards comes to relieve you both. You are dismissed." The bat pony bowed again as she muttered a thank you, before taking off into the air and towards the statue garden.

As the night guard flew out of the room the room fell into silence as the advisors and servants looked at Princess Luna, who was deep in thought. _"If one of the statues is breaking apart, and an aura of emptiness is around it, then there's no mistaking it. He's found a way to break out of his confinements. Who knows what will happen if he escapes..." _Luna turned to one of her advisors and said "Organise a patrol of guards and a team of royal caretakers to go get that statue, and have them move it to a dungeon cell." She then turned to another and said "Go inform my sister of the events that have occurred, and inform an extra deployment of soldiers to patrol the dungeons." Luna kept ordering the servants around her to fill out orders, until it was just her in the chamber.

As Luna got up to head to the castle dungeons to ensure that all of the preparations were complete for the transfer, princess Celestia walked in into the chambers and said "Why does everything have to happen at night? Don't they need to sleep like the rest of us?" To most mortals Celestia would have looked her usual self, but Luna knew her sister well enough to tell that she was annoyed and tired. "We assume that they prefer to sneak around under the calm light that only our nights bring, dearest sister."

Celestia sighed lightly as she walked up to Luna, before stopping in front of her sister and saying "Luna, I know that one of the statues is falling apart, but from what I've heard from the servant you have wake me, you've already managed to put the possible threat into a safe quarantine for the moment. So was necessary for you to have me awoken immediately for an event that hasn't happened yet?" Luna nodded, before looking at Celestia and saying "Yes it was sister. We need to ensure that the pony doesn't escape." The solar princess glared at the lunar princess for a moment, before walking towards the exit. "You have the entire castle hyped up of one of the pony captives?" Said Celestia as she continued to walk out, lightly shaking her head as she continued. "You know that many of the pony statues in the garden are either statues made from magic rock or are already dead."

Luna flew in front of her sister and blocked her path, before saying "We know that, sister. But the guards who found it felt a magical aura surrounding it, and the statue in question is the cloaked pony statue you placed out of the way." Celestia stopped in her tracks as her eyes widened, before asking "Wait, you don't seriously think that…" Luna sadly nodded as she said "With the information, we have no choice but to believe that the necromancer is breaking out of his confidents."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.

* * *

It was a normal day in Ponyville as the ponies in the town wandered around doing their usual business without fear of the typical monster barging in and threatening all of their lives (Some creatures would say that the lack of dangerous threats in Ponyville means that today was an unusual day, but that is beside the point.) On this day, five ponies and a young dragon were sat in a park having a peaceful picnic.

"… and then I said 'That's not a cupcake, that's a muffin'!" Pinkie Pie said causing the group to laugh as Spike the dragon shovelled down another helping of ruby raspberry ice cream. "Oh Pinkie Pie, you're so random!" said Rainbow Dash as she picked up another cupcake from the tray and taking a bite from it. Pinkie Pie looked over at Applejack and said "Oh that reminds me, Mrs. Cake wanted me to ask you for an extra batch of apples in the next delivery for her scrum-deli-umptious Apple Cherry Tarts."

Applejack nodded as she placed down her punch glass and said "That's might helpful of you to tell me, sugarcube. Tell the Cakes that they'll get all the apples they need." Twilight picked up a cupcake in her magic as she looked around, before asking "Do any of you know where Fluttershy is? She's never this late for anything." Rarity looked over to her as she picked up her drink and said "Don't worry, darling. Fluttershy told me earlier that she may not turn up, as Discord seemed to be acting weird last night." Rarity took a sip of her drink as the rest of the ponies stared at her in confusion.

After a moment, the dressmaker finally took notice of her friend's confusion, so she placed her drink down and continued "I honestly don't know that much other than that, so we'll just have to wait until she turns up to find out." As if by magic, the sound of flapping wings grew as Fluttershy appeared from the nearby forest before gently landing near the others. "Sorry I'm late, everypony, but Discord needed to leave for a couple of days to visits some of his old acquaintances."

The group of ponies turned to each other for a moment, before turning back as Rarity asked "What do you mean when you say 'old acquaintances', dear?" Fluttershy walked over to the picnic blanket as she said "Well Discord said that they were a group of old rock icons, and as a friend I didn't want to intrude on his privacy." Applejack raised an eyebrow at this, while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in confusion.

Meanwhile, Spike had dropped his spoon and turned away from the ruby filled ice cream and placed a claw on his forehead, letting out a low mutter "Damn it, I should really learn when I'm about to have a brainfre-" He suddenly stopped when his cheeks filled up with magical aura, before burping out a flame that turned the aura into a letter that landed in front of Twilight. The purple princess picked up the royal letter and opened it, saying "Oh look girls, princess Celestia sent us another letter." Pinkie Pie popped up behind Twilight and said "Oh, tell us what she said, Twilight! I hope it's about that party I sent her in the mail." Twilight gave Pinkie Pie a strange look, before skim reading the letter.

Twilight looked up from the letter with a worried look, before saying "The princess is worried about the safety of the nation, and requests us to find her in Canterlot immediately to avoid possible disaster!" The ponies and dragon looked at each other for a moment before running towards Ponyville, leaving Pinkie Pie at the picnic. She looked at the food on the blanket for a moment, before picking up the entire blanket with the food on it. She started to run towards the town, with picnic blanket in tow, as she said "There's no need to be in a hurry, you guys. We have the rest of the chapter to get ready!"

* * *

The guard sighed as followed the team of servants that were pulling a cart full of thick straps towards the royal statue garden. He looked over to his comrade while mindlessly following the cart, before looking away as the rising sun reflected off his helmet. "Damn it Safe, why do you have to polish your helmet every day?" He said as he faced away from the refection, only to hear Safe say "Well I'm sorry if I wish to be presentable to everyone I happen to meet, Brute. Speaking of which, why don't you clean up some of your armour; it looks like you've just broken through a wall in that."

Brute shook his head while saying "Well at least ponies can look at me without being blinded by the light reflecting off my armour. Anyway, it's hard to clean armour when you don't have a horn or wings" He heard Safe exhale in frustration as the cart passed over a bush archway of the garden when he suddenly felt a cold shiver run through his body, and all emotion seemed to disappear from the traveling party. Brute turned to Safe and asked "Did you feel that?" Safe nodded slowly as he said "You mean the feeling of someone walking over my own grave? Yeah, I felt it." Brute suddenly realised that the sun wasn't reflecting onto Safe's helmet as a shade flew over them, so Brute looked up to the sky only to see that there was a giant, black bird circling the gardens.

The bird suddenly stopped circling the gardens and dived in front of the now stationary cart, before landing on the back of a badly chipped statue and pecking at the stone. One of the servants pulling the cart broke away from the rest as she attempted to scare the bird away, but it simply glared at her before hitting her with a wing and sending her flying into the other servants. Brute looked at Safe as he prepared his spear, before he nodded at Brute and the pair of them charged at the creature.

The creature noticed the pair of guards running towards it which allowed the servants fled away from the fight, as it swiftly lifted itself off of the statue and bolted towards Safe and Brute. Brute managed to dive out of the way of the creature and looked towards where Safe was; only to notice that Safe was gone and his spear was embedded into the ground. He looked at where the creature was headed, only saw that the bird had grabbed Safe in its talons and was flying upwards.

Brute felt his guard training kick in as he grabbed the fallen spear and threw it towards the giant bird and the flailing guard. The spear flew at a great spread and hit its mark dead centre as it fully penetrated the beast through its chest, causing it to release Safe from its clutches. Safe started to plummet to the ground as several of the servants grabbed him in their magic, and the creature flew away from the gardens and beyond the castle.

"Well, that was quite interesting." Said a voice behind Bruce, making him jump in surprise and turn in preparation for another fight. Discord raised his claws sarcastically as he said "There's no need to get violent, Bruty. I'm just visiting my old conversation pals." Brute sighed as he turned to watch his comrade being softly being placed on the ground. _"Princess Celestia said that discord is no longer a threat to us, but that doesn't mean that I have to trust him."_

Brute thought, before seeing that the claw marks in his armour and the cuts in his skin creature had made in Safe, as he struggled to stand up. Brute walked over to his fellow guard and helped supported him, before turning to a servant and saying "I'm going to take Safe to the infirmary and send another battalion of guards over, so I want you to get that statue ready to move ASAP." The servant nodded before running over to the others and relaying the message, which allowed the two guards a chance to get medical attention.

Discord watched as the ponies found ways to occupy themselves, before turning to the statues in front of him as he said "Well, you'll as lifeless as I last met you." Discord chuckled to himself as he walked over to his empty plinth and sat on it, and a voice from a nearby statue said _"Oh look who it is, everypony; It's Mr 'I'm not going to release any of you because you're no fun'." _A trio of voices piped up before Discord could reply _"You could have at least given us something interesting to look at, but no; you go and put into another garden surrounded by tall bushes." _More voices piped up with complaints about Discord _"You made me itch all over!" "You just had to make the sun shine into my eyes hundreds of times, didn't you?" "You owe me a chocolate bar!"_

Discord huffed for a moment, before saying "Alright, I may have lied to you all. But really, what did you expect; A cake?" As he spoke a large cake appeared in his claws and he pulled out knife and started to cut the cake, but suddenly a large bird swooped down and grabbed the knife away from discord and took off into the sky. Discord looked at the bird in confusion when a voice decided to speak again. _"Well, some of us will be joining you soon, Dick-cord. And then we'll see why you shouldn't hold out on us."_

Discord turned his attention to the servants as a group of armed guards led them into the castle with a cart containing a cracked statue, which had pieces of black cloth sticking out of it. "Well that's interesting…" Discord said, before disappearing into a hail of confetti.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.

* * *

Princess Celestia and Luna were walking through the castle towards the entrance to the dungeon with a pair of guards when they heard that the statute had been moved into the cell. As they walked, Princess Luna turned to her sister and asked "How long do you think it'll take twilight and her friends to get here, sister?" Celestia looked over at her sister and gently smiled, before saying "I know that they won't be long now. They have always been quick to respond to dangers that could harm Equestria."

One of the guards behind the princesses turned to his companion and asked "This must be an important task we have to do if the elements of harmony are required." The other guard turned to the earth pony and he said "Well at least we'll all be safe with those 6 here. Who knows, maybe we'll get to meet them today." The pony guard looked down at the ground for a moment, before saying "I've met them before, and trust me when I say that meeting them here is not usually a good thing." The earth pony looked at the pegasus in confusion, before asking "What do you mean by that? They save the day many times before, so why wouldn't it be a good thing for them to be here?"

The other guard shook her head as she said "That's the thing. Whenever they go, there always seems to be some form of danger that follows those six around; Nightmare moon, Discord, that Changeling queen, and who knows what else." The pegasus looked at the earth pony for a moment, before saying "Well you can say that, but then you'll be forgetting about the fact that they stopped Tirek without causing a single fatality." The earth pony guard looked at her for a moment in confusion, before saying "Who's Tirek? Is he some ruler from another country or something?" The pegasus tutted at the earth pony for her ignorance, before noticing the armour that she was wearing. "Hey, how come you're wearing pegasus armour? Shouldn't you be wearing armour made for earth ponies?" The earth pony looked at the pegasus and said "I'm wearing this armour because I'm a pegasus. It's just that I had an unfortunate accident when that changeling attacked."

Their conversation was interrupted when the princess of the night looked backed at the guards and said "As much as we do not wish to disturb your conversation, we will request you to stop talking as we enter the dungeons as to avoid aggravating anyone." Princess Luna and Celestia then walked down the stairway as the earth pony said "Never you mind about that, you have to follow the princesses down. I wish I could join you, but I fear that I must continue to search for any changeling in the area. I will not rest peacefully until the changelings are no longer a threat to the ponies that exist within these walls." The pegasus guard started to walk down the stairs into the dungeon, before stopping and turning back as he said "what do you mean? There is no…" The guard stopped when he noticed that the pale earth pony guard had disappeared. The pegasus stared in surprise for a moment, before quickly continuing down the stairs to check on the security that was guarding the dungeons.

* * *

Princess Celestia and Luna were watching the statue of the necromancer slowly breaking apart when Twilight Sparkle and her friends came up to them, and Twilight said "Princess Celestia, we came as fast as we could when we heard that Equestria is in danger. Is there still time to stop this creature from breaking free?" Celestia smiled sadly at her student and said "I am afraid not, as his stone encasement seems to have broken apart far more than I had expected. All we can do is hope that we can defeat him before he is able to cause any form of harm."

As she finished talking, she looked over to the statue as a large chunk of stone fell off of the head, revealing the dark hood that was underneath. Rainbow Dash smirked as she said "Well whatever is in there, we can take it down. After all, we've dealt with an evil dictator, a changeling invasion and a god of chaos! What could be worse than all of that?" Princess Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a few moments, before Luna looked back at the statue and spoke "We fear that this pony is unlike any other creature that you may have encountered during your journeys across Equestria, for you see, this pony has deeply dabbled within the cursed necromantic magic. Due to this, we are unaware of what this pony may cause to happen in both the spiritual and the physical realms."

From behind the other ponies, Fluttershy peaked over at the princesses and asked "Spir… spiritual realm? You me… mean like tho… those gh… ghosts in tho… those films?" Twilight gave Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie a look, and Pinkie Pie shrugged and said "How were we meant to know that Fluttershy wasn't going to enjoy watching horror films with us." Princess Celestia ignored the element of harmony' bickering as she replied "In a way, yes. You see, pony that used necromancy magic are able to interact and manipulate the spiritual realms and the spirits that reside within the spiritual realm. However, there were only a small few that were able to use this magic, and it was quickly banished or turned to stone due to the fear of the three pony tribes."

The ponies looked back at the Statue as a loud _**Crack **_radiated throughout the cells, followed by the sound of a large piece of stone falling onto the stone floor. The ponies quickly prepared to fight in case they needed to fend of the necromancer, but after a few moments it became obvious that the pony within the statue hadn't broken out yet. A familiar chuckle follow the silence in the dungeon as Discord strolled out of the shadows as he said "It is always fun to see you jump at shadows, Celestia." Princess Luna stepped towards the Chaos spirit with her horn powered with magic and said "Discord, if you had anything to do with this then so help me…"

Discord quickly interrupted the princess with a wave of his claw and said "Trust me, Princess Luna, I wouldn't dare release any of the ponies that reside within those statues. They're all far too boring with their constant arguments and games of eye spy for me to even consider helping any of them wander around the place." Discord then teleported next to Fluttershy and asked "By the way, dear Fluttershy, I hate to inform you that a rather large bird has be aggravating the guards in the garden and has even taken that cake-cutting instrument which I just so happened to borrow from your home while you were traveling here."

The two princesses looked at each other, before looking back as Discord and asking "A large bird? Would it happen to have been bigger than the average pony and pure black, by any chance?" Discord shrugged the question off and said "I honestly have no idea what the thing looked like, as I was too busy catching up with the boring brigade in the garden." Before anyone else could speak, Rarity turned to the rulers of Equestria and asked "Not to intrude on any sort of hard memories, but how many statues in the royal garden are real and dangerous ponies, exactly?" The two princesses quickly looked away in shame and embarrassment, while Discord simply chuckled and said "Trust me when I say that it is more than most ponies would expect or wish for, Rarity."

Another loud _**crack**_ echoed throughout the halls, interrupting the pony' awkward conversation about the number of living statues in Canterlot as the Elements of Harmony and the Princesses of the Sun and Moon prepared to defeat the forces that laid within the statue' breaking surface. The silence of dungeon created by the pony's concentration was only interrupted by the sound of a leak dripping and quiet by constant sound of the stone shell breaking away from the Necromancer' prison. Each of the ponies managed to hide away their individual fears of what could break out of the statue so that they were able to face the dangers ahead without hesitation as they had done countless times before, while Discord simply leaned against one of the old stone walls and hummed a tune called "the merry go round broke down".

The statue slowly chipped away at itself, slowly revealing more parts of the black cloak that appeared to cloak the pony' body, while a large crack slowly appeared in the legs and underbelly area. After what appeared to be hours (which may have actually been hours since Discord was nearby and bored), the underbelly of the statue caved in, allowing the cloak inside of the statue to fall out. To the surprise of everypony there and Discord, a large amount of bones fell out of the statue and landed in a messy pile on the old cloth.  
Nopony dared to react for the longest time in shock at what they say, but this brief pause was ended by both Fluttershy and Rarity fainting onto a large couch that seemed to appear from no-where. This was quickly followed by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Applejack slowly turning to the princesses and Discord and staring at them at shock. After a moment, Applejack asked "Princesses, how many of these statues had real ponies in? Cos' I doubt that they'll completely flourishing within 'em."

Princess Luna looked at the statue and said "Well, this pony was actually one of the first to be turned to stone, and the spell was cast by a team of unicorns without the elements, so this may just be a rare occurrence from a miss-cast spell. Still, it may be wise for us to look at the condition of the other, sister." Celestia nodded as she said "Yes, that would seem to be one of the main priorities that we need to consider, given the current developments. However, I feel that we should first leave this place, before Rarity or Fluttershy wake up and faint again."

The ponies quickly agreed to leave the dungeon, as none of them wished to be in a dungeon with an ancient skeleton of a Necromancer. After the ponies quickly teleported away in a flash of Celetia's magic, Discord leaned towards the cell's bars and said "No wonder you weren't you weren't as talkative as the others. Still, there's really no point in trying to talk to you now, since I have to go turn a large bird into a bag of bird seed. Or maybe some form of fancy hat, I haven't really decided yet." With that, Discord vanished from the dungeon in a flash of light, leaving the pile of bones and cloak to sit in the cell.

However, if the ponies or Discord decided to stick around the dungeons a bit longer, then they would have seen the floating ball of light that floated through the wall and towards the statue.

* * *

**Wow, It's been ages since I've written something not related to some form of report, and I can't believe that I forgot how nice it feels to finish a chapter. **


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.**_

* * *

If a pony were to look over the tall garden bushes that surrounded the castle royal garden, they would be able to see the mass amounts of solar guards were patrolling the area and appeared to be staring at the statues that resided in the since there were no ponies in the city that were interested in entering the garden, the royal guards were able to continue their search of the area for dark magic and their silent watch over the other dangerous stone prisoners. The guards in the area continued these tasks with a dedicated vigilance that was enforced into them by their training, even to the extent that the guards completely ignored the bright flash in the centre of the garden that was followed by the sudden appearance of three royal Alicorns princesses and the elements of harmony.

The three princesses quickly looked around their surroundings to get an understanding of the area, before Twilight quickly bolted away from the group and headed towards one of the pony statues. Meanwhile Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash attempted to try and wake up Fluttershy and Rarity from their faint spell, while Princess Luna and Celestia walked over to where Twilight was current covering one of the statues with a magical aura. After a few moments of silence, the rest of the mane six walked over to the statue in curiosity of what Twilight was doing, who appeared to be a state of concentration. After a few moments the glow around Twilight's horn and the pony statue faded from view, which was followed by her saying "I don't understand. Why would one pony that got turned to stone expire while another pony would remain unaffected by the time that they spent within stone?"

Princess Luna looked at Twilight and said "As we hath said before, the necromancer was the first case of a pony being turned to stone due to their deeds, so the spell may not have been perfected at the time. There is also the fact that the power that the pony had control over was as mysterious as it was powerful and dangerous." After a few moments, Applejack asked "Beg your pardon, princesses, but who exactly was the necromancer and how strong was he when he was casting spells?"

Princess Celestia looked at the elements and said in a doubtful tone "We do not know exactly how powerful the necromancer was or what he was called, as all the stories about him had been spread through generations of rumours before anypony recorded the notes on paper. However, the few recorded notes on him say that he was able to raise an entire graveyard of ponies without effort, and that he was a master of the dark arts more so than even Sombra. However, we have yet to find out if these were simple rumours that everypony believed or if they were true tales of his life."

The ponies stood there in the garden in thought for a moment, before Pinkie Pie's yelped in surprise as her tail and her hind legs started to twitch intensely. The ponies looked at Pinkie for a second as Princess Luna asked "What's wrong, friend Pinkie? Why is your leg and tail shivering?" Before anypony could tell Princess Luna about Pinkie's pinkie sense™, a loud **CRACK** radiated from the castle which was shortly followed by multiple terrified screams. The Ponies looked at each other in shock, before quickly running towards the source of the screaming as the Royal Guards that were guarding the garden quickly followed them.

* * *

5 minutes earlier, in the Canterlot dungons

The glowing orb floated down the halls of the dungeon was starting to grow tired of searching for the remains of his its mortal body. _"Why is it so hard to find by body? I spent the majority of my mortal life in it, so why is so damn hard to find the bloody thing?" _The glowing orb floated through another wall, and was surprised to find that Discord, the spirit of chaos itself, was talking into a cell about bird seed and fancy hats before teleporting away. The glowing orb became curious about who or what Discord was talking to, since he was unable to feel any sort of life radiate from within the cell as he floated closer.

When the orb finally floated into view of the cell it was pleasantly surprised to find the statue that trapped him, as well as his remains sitting in a pile under the statue. The orb mentally sighed to itself as it floated into the cell, before thinking _"Thank the blessed earths I have finally found my own body. I was starting to feel as if they had already put my remains into another statue. I do not want to spend another 2 millenniums waiting for my body to escape the statue again." _As the orb floated closer to its remains, it sighed in annoyance at the body's condition. _"Damn it. Why did my body have to decompose? Then again I didn't expect to find my body in perfect condition, and by the feel of it, I can still use re-enter it. I just wish that I had something more to work with than bones."_

The orb slowly floated into the pony's skull, before stopping in the centre as the orb started to softly chant a spell. _"O magnum Saint omnium," _The glowing orb slowly floated out of the skull as it followed the skeleton's spine. _"miserere mei da imperium" _The orb slowly floated into the skeleton's ribcage, before slowly stopping. _"placuit coniungere rebus viventium" _The orb slowly started to fade from view before becoming non-existent. _"ut pia_ sim." As the chant was finished, the skeletal remains of the orb's previous body began to respond to the actions and speech of the orb.

The skeleton slowly rose from the ground onto his 4 legs, before lifting his head to look around the cell he was in. The bars of the cell seemed to be close enough to prevent any normal pony from walking out, but it was obvious that the bars was designed for ponies that had muscle, organs and flesh. As the skeleton walked towards the bars he suddenly found himself falling over one of his legs and slamming into the ground, which caused his skull to fall off the floor. He sighed as he rotated his head to see what he tripped over and saw that he had fallen over his cape that were tangled in his leg bones.

He sighed in annoyance, but suddenly realised that he could still feel and see his fore hoofs struggle out of the cloak. He sighed as he thought _"Great. Now I'm going to have to figure out a way to calm my body down so that I can untangle my legs from the cloak and re-attach my head." _However as soon as he finished this thought, the skeletal body seemed to pause in mid-flail before slowly shaking one of its hoofs until the cloak fell off. The skull stared at the rest of his body as it slowly untangled its other hoof, before walking towards the skull and picking it up gently. The skull thought for a moment as he felt himself re-connect with the rest of his body, before saying to himself "So even if my body breaks apart, it will still respond to my commands and thoughts. That's helpful to know in the future."

He was about to walk between the bars of his cell and out into the hallway, before paused for a moment as he looked back at the cloak that tripped him a second ago. After mentally debating taking the cloak with him, he walked back over to it while saying "Ah, what the hell. I kept it with me for this long, I may as well continue to wear it at least until I can find something more modern to wear. Plus I think it would be best to hide my current form from the public eye, and this is the best thing I have to do that at the moment." The skeleton threw the cloak across his back and secured the cloak around his neck, before lifting his hood over his skull as he turned back to the cell bars.

The cloaked skeleton stepped though the gap in the cell bars easily and looked down the hallway, where he could sense that there were at least two sources of life-force beyond the door at the end of the hall. As the skeleton walked towards the door, he started to go over his plan of action "Alright, I don't know how people are going to react to seeing a skeleton necromancer stranger walk out of the dungeon unexpectedly. Maybe I should try and sneak around them, even if they see me then i just need to talk them into the idea of letting me walk out undisturbed. Let's just hope that nothing complicated the matter anymore than it already is."

He walked up to the wooden door that separated him from the two life forms and placed a bone hoof against the door, before sighing as he said "Alright, here goes nothing…" He pushed against the door, only for the door not to move an inch. The skeleton looked at the door in annoyance as removed his hoof from the door, before thinking _"Of course the wood door in the dungeon is locked, why would I've expect it to be open for everyone to use? Well, at least I know a spell that allows me to clear my paths. But it would help if I could ever remember if the damn chant ended with Meam Abire or Meam Cedit. I guess there's only one way to find out for sure, let's just hope I pick the right one…"_

The necromancer slowly lifted his hoof one again and moved it so that it hovered an inch from the door's centre, before mentally closing his eyes and softly chanting the spell "O potens custos peregrinatione Amen impedimenta in potestatem meam abire." As the necromancer finished his chant, he moved his hoof forward and jabbed it into the door.

The door suddenly flung itself away from the skeleton's hoof at a rapid speed, before slamming itself into the stone wall opposite with a solid **CRUNCH **as the wood cracked and splintered from the force that had thrust it from its hinges. The skeleton stared at the remains of the door in surprise for only a moment, before walking into the room as he muttered "I must try harder to remember which chants do what, else I'm going to end up causing a lot of trouble for everyone."

The necromancer then turned to the only source of life that was in the room, which appeared to be a pale earth pony with golden armour and a large spear, who was currently staring at the wall the door had crushed itself against in shock. The skeleton necromancer looked at the guard for a moment in case it decided to try and attack him, but soon it became obvious that the door was much more interesting to the guard than necromancer was. After a few moments, the skeleton cleared his throat to catch the guard's attention, before saying "Excuse me sir, but would you kindly be able to show me the way out of this castle? I feel that I need to feed my bird before she decides to start attacking innocent creatures again."

As soon as the skeleton was finished talking the only sound that could be heard was heavy breathing, which was shortly followed by a loud thump as the royal guard fainted and fell onto the floor. The skeleton looked at the fallen figure for a moment, before walking out of the room and saying "They really don't train guards like they used to. Well I better try and find someone else to point me towards the way out."

As the skeleton continued to walk around the halls of the castle, he came across several more life-forms as well as wandering souls of the decease. However every time he walked up towards one of the living creatures they ran away from him in fear while screaming, and he knew that it would be wise to avoid the dead souls as all they ever ask for is to be brought to life. _"Don't they understand that if I bring them into the physical existence again, that they won't be brought back properly? That they would most likely become a shadow of their former selves, servants whose only desire can be over-ridden by a single word from me? And don't they understand the amount of peroration, resources and energy it takes to bring back any creature to unaltered by resurrection for anything longer than an hour?"_

He suddenly stopped trotting down hallways when a yellow beam of magic shot through his cloak and his ribcage before striking the tiled floor, leaving a black burn mark on the ground. Instinctively, the skeleton turned around to face whoever decided to attack him, only to see a large group of ponies staring at him with a look of what appeared to be a fearful anger. One of the larger ponies, the white horned-winged one, took a step towards him and said "Stop where you are, Necromancer. Your reign of fear and terror will end now!"

The necromancer in question looked at the tall pony and the group of ponies that stood behind her, and finally noticed that there were also a large number of armed royal guards behind the large group. Even though he was vastly outnumbered, he felt as if he needed to correct the tall white pony as he said "Reign of fear and terror? How can I do so much as to warrant such as harsh claim against me in the ten minutes that I have been alive for? Also I would prefer it if you didn't refer to me by my title, but to instead to referred to me by my name, Open Grave the Undying."

* * *

_**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and feel free to leave a comment down below.**_


End file.
